July 2017

Last December, James Dooley Sullivan packed his wheelchair and travelled to Jamaica. Sullivan, an animator and visual arts video editor at the World Bank Group, wanted to see first-hand what it’s like to be disabled in a developing country. He shares his experience and his own history in a video and a series of blog posts.

Luckily, when we land in Kingston we are greeted by the only leased van in all of Jamaica with a wheelchair lift. It fits me, my chair, my colleague Peter and all of the camera gear we’ll need to document my adventures learning about disability access in the developing world. What the van doesn’t have is working shock absorbers. I have to brace myself on a seat cushion as our driver Dereck tries to evade pot holes on the way to our hotel.

Whenever I check into a room I have to make some quick assessments. Here in Kingston, the carpet is thick and hard to push through, while the bed is spacious and at a suitable height. My new 17-inch wide chair just barely squeezes into the bathroom but the sink has a granite slab that whacks my knees. In the win column – there’s a handheld showerhead I can reach. In the no-win column – the toilet is really low and will need my complete concentration when in use.

India, until recently the fastest growing economy in the world, realized long ago the need for developing infrastructure to fuel its growth. The government also realized that doing so with public funds would not be sufficient. Hence, India rolled out one of the largest Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programs in the world over the first decade of the 21st century.

But India’s massive program also brought with it some challenges, which eventually slowed down the growth of PPPs over the last five years. Yet, this was not the end of the program or our national infrastructure ambitions. This was a learning period, and the relevant government agencies have been efficient in mapping out the constraints that plagued the PPP market and are working on policies to remedy them. It remains to be seen whether or not the implementation of these corrective measures will put the jewel back in the crown of Indian PPPs, but it is a step in the right direction.

As an upper-middle income country with a majority of its population living in cities, Malaysia is situated among the countries that prove urbanization is key to achieving high-income status. Asking “How can we benefit further from urbanization?” Malaysian policymakers have identified competitive cities as a game changer in the 11th Malaysia Plan. To this end, the World Bank has worked with the government to better understand issues of urbanization and formulate strategies for strengthening the role of cities through the report, “Achieving a System of Competitive Cities in Malaysia.”

Its larger cities are characterized by urban sprawl, particularly in Kuala Lumpur, where population density is low for an Asian metropolis. This inefficient urban form results in high transport costs and negative environmental impacts. This is matched by low economic density, indicating Malaysia’s cities can do better in maximizing the economic benefits from urban agglomeration.

A second challenge hampering Malaysia’s cities is the highly centralized approach to urban management and service delivery, a system that impedes the local level, and obstructs service delivery and effective implementation of urban and spatial plans.

Third is a growing recognition of the importance of promoting social inclusion to ensure that the benefits of urbanization are widely shared.

The World Bank assigns the world's economies into four income groups — high, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low. We base this assignment on GNI per capita calculated using the Atlas method. The units for this measure and for the thresholds is current US Dollars.

Each year on July 1st, we update the classifications. They change for two reasons:

1. In each country, factors such as income growth, inflation, exchange rates, and population change, influence GNI per capita.

2. To keep the dollar thresholds which separate the classifications fixed in real terms, we adjust them for inflation.

The data for the first adjustment come from estimates of 2016 GNI per capita which are now available. This year, the thresholds have moved down slightly because of low price inflation and the strengthening of the US dollar. Click here for information about how the World Bank classifies countries.

Updated Thresholds

New thresholds are determined at the start of the Bank’s fiscal year in July and remain fixed for 12 months regardless of subsequent revisions to estimates. As of July 1 2017, the new thresholds for classification by income are:

Threshold

GNI/Capita (current US$)

Low-income

< 1,005

Lower-middle income

1,006 - 3,955

Upper-middle income

3,956 - 12,235

High-income

> 12,235

Changes in Classification

The following countries have new income groups:

Country

Old group

New group

Angola

Upper-middle

Lower-middle

Croatia

High-income

Upper-middle

Georgia

Upper-middle

Lower-middle

Jordan

Upper-middle

Lower-middle

Nauru

High-income

Upper-middle

Palau

Upper-middle

High-income

Samoa

Lower-middle

Upper-middle

Tonga

Lower-middle

Upper-middle

The country and lending groups page provides a complete list of economies classified by income, region, and lending status and links to previous years’ classifications. The classification tables include all World Bank members, plus all other economies with populations of more than 30,000. The term country, used interchangeably with economy, does not imply political independence but refers to any territory for which authorities report separate social or economic statistics.

The World Development Indicators database has been updated. This is a regular quarterly update to over 600 indicators and includes both new indicators and updates to existing indicators.

2016 data for population, GDP and GNI-related indicators have been released for countries and aggregates. Other data that have been updated include: balance of payments series, monetary indicators, military expenditure, and merchandise trade. The classifications of countries by income, and aggregations by income group reflect new fiscal year 2018 income classifications.

New Public Private Partnership series have been introduced in this release. The percentage of people with an account (SDG 8.10.2 from the Findex) is also available and disaggregated by sex, income, and education level.

Purchasing Power Parities have been updated for OECD and Eurostat countries to reflect their latest release. Purchasing Power Parities and related indicators in PPP terms for Cuba (expenditures, income, etc.) have been removed.

Children walking along a road in a city in Gaza. Natalia Cieslik / World Bank

I had the opportunity recently to participate in the Third Edition of the World Reconstruction Conference, where I was reminded once again of a sobering reality – that we live in an increasingly interconnected world where multiple crises overlap in complex ways, from the impacts of climate change to a spike in violent conflict, historically high levels of forced displacement, and the worst famine in 70 years.

At the same time, I was encouraged by how the international community is coming together, breaking silos to forge a comprehensive response. While the Conference focused on the role of post-crisis recovery and reconstruction for resilience building and disaster risk reduction, partners recognized the complexity of this effort. The joint communique noted that conflict and fragility require special attention as it can aggravate the impact of natural disasters and make the recovery process more challenging.